2017 Tour de France

This year's edition has fewer kilometers of TT compared to last years, coming in at 36km. This will emphasize TTing a little less than last year, which isn't quite as good for contender's like Chris Froome that are notably good at the race against the clock. The other major change to this year's tour is the additional of more "punchy" stages that have a number of short climbs throughout the stage, often ending on a short, punchy climb as well. It will be interesting to see how this effects the GC, and the aggressiveness of the racing.

Additionally, in the same vein of aggressiveness there are several shorter than normal mountain stages that the organizers have implemented in order to tempt more aggressive racing and less "ride tempo up hills until the final climb". This has worked pretty well in past editions of the Vuelta and Giro, seeing some excellent stages.

The Yellow Jersey : Worn by the current leader of the race, represents general time classification

The Green Jersey : Worn by the leader of the General points classification. A sprinters ranking.

The Polka-Dot Jersey : The jersey affiliated with the Best Climber Classification. More commonly known as "The King of The Mountains." It is very rare though that the best climber actually wins this classification though.

The White Jersey : For the Best Young Rider of the race. Basically the yellow jersey for 25 y.o. and younger. It is possible to win both the Yellow and White Jersey.

This Tour de France is the 104th edition, it is 3540km long with 21 stages, and two rest days

General Info for new followers:GC stands for general classification and refers to riders who are competing to win the overall tour. Generally too be a good GC rider one must be a respectable individual time trialist (a solo ride against the clock), as well as someone with very good power to weight ratio, as that determines how fast one climbs. Almost every bike tour features many summit finishes, meaning that the last climb of a summit finish is a very important opportunity to gain time on rivals.

For those unfamiliar, in a time trial, which tends to be one flatter routes, bigger guys that put out more raw power (watts) are generally favored over lighter riders that might have better power/weight (w/kg) ratio. The reason for is that weight is a small penalty on flat ground, with the big player being air resistance. At typical time trial speeds, well over 90% of your power is spent overcoming air resistance. With good position on the bike, a riders drag coefficient does not become significantly larger even if the rider is a little bigger...which means that with similar amounts of drag the rider putting out more raw power will go faster.

For this edition of the tour there are three major contenders for the overall win: Chris Froome (Sky), Richie Porte (BMC), Nairo Quintana (Movistar), and potentially Jakob Fugelsang (Astana). Other names that could threaten, but would be a surprise to see on the top step of the podium include: Alberto Contadar, Romain Bardet, Thibaut Pinot, Fabio Aru, Esteban Chaves, Rafal Majka, and Rigoberto Uran.

Chris Froome - 2013/2015/2016 TdF champion. The strongest of all the GC riders at time trialing in large part because he is a "bigger" guy at 67kg. Based on resume and past results Froome would the overwhelming favorite. He has been close to unstoppable over the past 4 or 5 years, and is the best time trialist of any GC contender. Probably the best climber too once you get past Nairo Quintana. In recent years he's shown a flair and willingness to try gambles in order to gain extra time on rivals, and it's worked out well.

The downside here is that Froome has not looked impressive at all. He usually turns up at the Dauphine before the Tour looking to be in reasonable form and test himself. It didn't go so well this year, he was beaten in the time trial by Richie Porte, and generally struggled on the hills. I'd say Froome is still the favorite, but time will tell if this was the year father time began to win the battle, or just an early season where things didn't click.

Richie Porte - If we were going by 2017 form only, Richie Porte would be an overwhelming favorite for this year. He's been dominant in the mountains and been a multi time winner already. Smoked Froome and everyone else at the Dauphine time trial, and looked good until the last day when he made some poor decisions and ended up having to chase hard. Rumor has it he is lighter than he has ever been at 58kg.

There is a perception about Porte as not being a man for 3 week grand tours, but it's unfounded. Physically he is fine. He's just been one of the most unlucky riders over the past few years in the big ones. Nearly every grand tour he has had some misfortune that cause him to lose major time, many of which were in no way his fault; like getting tangled up with the camera motorcycle on Ventoux last year. Porte is damn near co-favorite with Froome; and if Froome really isn't on the same level of prior years, Porte is the definite favorite.

Nairo Quintana - The small Columbian, around 55kg, is the best climber in the field by a significant margin. At his best nobody can hang with him in the mountains. Unfortunately, at 55kg, Quintana doesn't have much absolute power to work with and consequently is not very good against the clock. He will lose time here to key rivals. This means that he has to take it back in the climbs, he needs to be going spectacularly to do so. Quintana of 14'/15' would be incredibly dangerous. However, last year, and at this years Giro Quintana has not really looked like the climber he has shown us before. Allegedly he has dealt with illness in several of his key races; but we haven't seen Quintana handling the field uphill like we did a few years ago, and in the Giro there were times were even Dumoulin was able to put him under pressure. Not good.

That said, if it really was illness both times there is a good chance we see vintage Quintana here.

The big thing going against him is that he is coming off the Giro. Quintana and Movistar seem to think Quintana can be at his best here, in the second grand tour of the season. It's bold, but I really think it's a stretch. It's worked horrible for other riders who have tried it (Contador last year) and just doesn't seem to allow enough time. You need a minimum 1-2 weeks to recovery, which leaves only 3 weeks or so to try and get in any quality training.

I'm really interested to see how he goes, but right now I can't see him as nearly as dangerous of a challenger as Porte/Froome. If he looks great on the first major climb though...watch it. Nobody in the field can touch this guy uphill when he's on.

Honarable Mentions:

Rafal Majka - In my opinion the next biggest threat. Majka lacks in TT though which hurts, but on his day he is one of the best climbers in the peleton. Twice a two time stage winner at the Tour and also a mountains jersey winner. Not quite sure he can climb with the best day in, day out; but this is his first real shot at being the leader for a grand tour.

Alberto Contador - The Spaniard is a two time TdF champion and 7 time grand tour winner. An excellent, explosive climber and a fairly good time trialist his palmares and experience are unmatched. That said, he is getting older and doesn't have the same form as he used to. He races aggressively and is always fun to watch, but he just doesn't have the w/kg to keep up day in and day out in the mountains. A podium would be an excellent result for Contador.

Contador's form coming in should be good. He had a stellar prologue ITT at the Criterium du Dauphine, and overall looked to be in good form there.

Esteban Chaves - Another emerging GT contender. Has looked good in the past, especially last years Giro, but has struggled in his build up. I think he is another rider that would do well to finish on the podium.

Fabio Aru - Another outside shot. Aru has been gradually emerging as an overall Grand Tour contender over the past few years. Unfortunatly he missed a ton of time in his build up and doesn't look like his form will be exceptional coming in.

Thibaut Pinot - In the past Pinot has been a good climber with a pretty weak TT. He was been working very hard on that the past few years, and has done quite well in TTs this year, although it let him down at the Giro where both his TT's were mediocre.

He's a really interesting rider to watch. He used to be a steady, diesel climber; but not he is one of the better sprinters out of the GC bunch, and has developed some punch to his riding. The downside is that like Quintana he is coming off the Giro and won't have great form. I'm not sure he will go for the GC overall, perhaps opting to hunt stages instead, but if he does then a podium here would be excellent.

Rigoberto Uran - Has won before at the Giro, but his TT isn't that great. He is good on his day, but hasn't done anything to suggest to me he is a strong contender over the length of the entire race.

Romain Bardet - Another great french climber with superlative descending skills. He almost always finds a way to win a stage or two. Not sure if he has the TT firepower and long term consistency yet to factor for the overall.

Peter Sagan - Don't think I need to say anything else. Sagan doesn't crash, and no else is going to get the jersey from him. Honestly, there are a realistic 11-12 stages in which Sagan *could* win. 7 are likely to be bunch sprints, which usually Sagan just lacks the top speed to beat the absolute fast men of the Tour, but there are more question marks surrounding those guys than usual. The other stages are all punchy stages which Sagan is normally a threat on. That said, he'll have some seriously stuff competition in both Philip Gilbert and Greg van Avermaet, who has been on the form of his life thus far.

For this new to the Tour, the green jersey is basically the "sprinters" point competition. Only a handful of guys can actually win overall, but there are other different styles of riding and most of these riders target wins on individual days (stages). The sprinters jersey awards points for high stage finishes, and at some intermediate points in stages. Sagan is basically unbeatable here because he is a top 10 sprinter outright on a flat stage, but can get over some serious hills (but not long alpine climbs) that the other sprinters have no chance on. So Sagan does okay on flat sprint stages, and then mops up crazy points along all the other hilly or medium mountain type days.

This year teamliquid is doing a fantasy league run like last year over on velogames. Anyone is welcome, and encouraged, to join the team. Format is pretty simple, you get 100 pts to pick 8 riders: 2 GC/All Rounder guys, 1 climbers, 1 sprinter, 3 domestique/breakaway guys, and one wildcard. Points are scored for stage places, GC placings, Green Jersey standings, Mountains standings, top positions over all Cat 1 and HC climbs, and then some other small points for being in breaks and 'assisting' riders.

Details can be found on the website.

If you wish to join the team it's pretty simple:

1)Head to www.velogames.com2)Create an account and make your team3)Go to SignUp and enter our league code, 8777032224) Hit submit

For anyone interested that rides bikes and feels inspired watching the best do their thing, I'd challenge everyone to get out and do an epic ride in the hills (or on the flats if you have no hills) and post them up. I'll say the challenge opens on the 15th and closes on the 19th.

There will be three categories for:

1) Longest Duration2) Most Elevation Gain3) Highest VAM on a climb greater than 300m in elevation change (A 4-6 min climb will be accepted in lieu of a 300m+ climb, but with a 10% reduction to account for the shorter duration)

So even if you don't have hours of time you can take a stab at number 3. Go out, grab your phone or GPS, and post em up to strava. Small prizes TBA will be associated with each category.

I'm in :D Can't really follow all the events throughout the year but nobody's going to stop me from watching tdf. (well... work will every now and again). With no mountain challenge participants right now I would give it a shot but there aren't any where I live. (Not that it matters. I'd only be a challenge for other asthma-plagued people :D)

This year I won't back Pinot. He's such an entertaining rider but after a few years of hoping for him to be the next french winner I've given up on him. I'll now ride the Louis Meintjes hype train for 5-10 years - maybe he can finish top 3 once.

Pinot is good. Not sure he is quite win the Txt yellow good but he keeps getting better and better. As I wrote in my little preview, it's impressive both how much he has improved his TT and how much he's gone away from being a diesel into a guy with more punch. He's one of the best "GC sprinters" now.

Just have to be so damn good to win. He's youngish still, if he can find that extra 2-3% he could absolutely still be a contender.

Good to not back him this year though, coming off the Giro it's highly unlikely he will be in the hunt for anything GC wise. Probably grabs a stage though.

I won't be able to do anything impressive for mountains either. I was in crazy good shape in early March, 350w for 19' at 65kg; but then I had school + 2 crashes...so I've barely ridden since then and not at all the last 3 weeks. Just started riding again two days ago.

On June 30 2017 08:17 TheNewEra wrote:Man I remember how I loved Tour de France like 7-8 years ago when I was way younger. Still going to watch it this year but I sadly can't bring myself to care about it as I did once

Question: Is it normal for them to start in a foreign country? Can't remember them starting in a foreign country (tho, as said before, I didn't follow it that much the last few year)

Basically same here. Still decided I'm gonna give the fantasy league a try, ofc without much of an idea lol.

I think they often start in different countries, they also have started 3 times in Germany before. German source for that

On July 01 2017 16:27 L_Master wrote:I won't be able to do anything impressive for mountains either. I was in crazy good shape in early March, 350w for 19' at 65kg; but then I had school + 2 crashes...so I've barely ridden since then and not at all the last 3 weeks. Just started riding again two days ago.

I hope you're getting better again. F*** crashes. I've had a really slow start to the year but for ~6 months I won't be required to take the car for work (afterwards I need it for external appointments) so I started to ride the bike to work. It's a short distance (12km) but having to carry 2 meals, water, another pair of cloth etc quickly sums up to a small challenge. Hoping to reach this years peak in late august when I'll go mountainbiking with my dad.

You're pretty confident that Majka could have a shot if the favourites struggle a bit. That's what I thought but when I looked at his stats for this year they seemed really underwhelming. Is it a sign of slow and concentrated preparation that I misinterpreted?

Same for me i used to be really hyped about the Tour aswell - going to some stages live aswell etc. I stopped caring about it completly for a few years but started watching some again the last 2 years and followed the Giro this year which was very interesting. I hope for a similar interesting tour

On June 30 2017 08:17 TheNewEra wrote:Man I remember how I loved Tour de France like 7-8 years ago when I was way younger. Still going to watch it this year but I sadly can't bring myself to care about it as I did once

Question: Is it normal for them to start in a foreign country? Can't remember them starting in a foreign country (tho, as said before, I didn't follow it that much the last few year)